Edible Bird’s Nest Mythbuster Edition: Cave and House Nest Myths

Edible Bird’s Nest Mythbuster Edition: Cave and House Nest Myths

The Edible Bird’s Nest is made from swiftlet’s saliva. In the nature, the nest found in dark caves and difficult to reach. But today, people are able to create an artificial habitat. The building is created to be in similar condition with that of the natural cave. There are differences between the cave nest and the house nest. The differences are the texture, the color and the shape of the nest. Of these differences, there are myths that are believed by the people regarding this both types of Edible Bird’s Nest. Here are the myths:

Colors

The cave nests have more variety in colors like red, yellow, and white. While the house nest also has red, yellow, gray and white. But, the red nest are more often found in a cave and are rarely found in the house therefore the red nest are most known as cave nest.
The myth is that the cave nests containing rust obtained from cave wall. Color variations are caused by the environment around the nest. As we have explained in the article about the myth of red nest, all nests are originally white and will stay white without any biological trigger. White nest will gradually turns into red color because of the unique climate condition and natural organic activities within the cave.

Nutrition

Other uncertain claim related to nutrition is that cave nest has different nutrient content from that house nest. According to the research by Azilawati Mohd Ismail, et al (2013), showed the similarities in the structure of the amino acid substances contained in both types of swallow nest.

Nitrite

Next is about the content of nitrite, in which the cave nest contains higher nitrite than the house nest. Paydar M (2013) confirmed that nitrite affects the color of the cave nests, dark color implies more nitrite. That means that cave nest contain more nitrite than the house nest. But, the presence of nitrite is caused by environmental factors, not directly derived from the birds. But no need to worry because nitrites are easily gone when rinsed with water.